VALA2014 – Concurrent Session 12 – Learning

Tom Joyce – Queensland University – Relying on customary practice when the law says no – justified, safe or simply no go

No certainty about copyright.

Copyright review is in the governments hands at present, but will have the government response in coming weeks.

Changes in technologies in the past 30 years has had profound changes on how we produce and use copyright materials. Copyright will continue to disappoint due to a number of reasons. Other IP very structured. No formality in copyright law. No certainty or clarity. It was utilitarian but has been twisted out of shape by the view of it being a natural property right for the creator. It has become one size fits all to protect the most valuable of entities eg. Commercial brands such as Disney etc.

We know that Copyright review is coming soon and that the recommendations include a flexible fair use exception. No more details known yet. We also don’t know where we are heading with our international obligations via trade treaties. One certainty is change.

Gap between law and norm is growing. You don’t have to choose, you can strictly adhere to the law but government recognises that there is a severe lag between them. The risks of actions as a result of a breach of copyright has been virtually non-existent.

There are ways to negotiate the gap. How? Look at the accepted norms, look at evolving thinking, look at past behaviour of copyright owners as an indication of future behaviour, non-commercial copyright owners more likely to rely on natural rights making their behaviour less predictable, try sector wide approaches. Fairness is the key.

The Australian Law Reform Commission is suggesting something approaching the US’s fair use as opposed to our restrictive fair dealing. Factors-purpose and character of use, nature of the copyrighted work, amount and substantiality in relation to the whole, the effect on the market. They are emphasising the need for a non-exhaustive and illustrative list for this.

Ultimately what it is about is that we can’t cause harm to the copyright owner.

We built it and they are coming – eResearch Flinders University – Amanda Nixon

EResearch is the use of ICT in research space including data management, high power computing, collaboration tools etc. They created a program to support research, greatly assisted by Australian National Data Service (ANDS). They are brokering – bringing people together for a suitable outcome for all involved.

Why does eResearch work? Come for the library, do good liaison, building on existing skills and institutional knowledge, acknowledge that we don’t know the answers but can find them – most importantly there was a need.

I read this thing… Bringing professional development into the social media age – Holley Adams and Hugh Rundle – Boroondara Libraries

Thought they had a problem with staff engagement with staff professional magazines. Turns out they didn’t. They had access to this content online but they did not see evidence that staff were using them for their own professional development. Some staff were following items on Twitter and blogs, some complained, some didn’t care. Questions raised what are the reading, where, their communities, how do we share, capture verbal discussion, recruit and engage. What they needed was a new model that would provide a self supporting professional staff who were sharing and developing professionally.

What should it look like? Blended learning has been shown to be the most successful model. Decided an extended Personal Learning Network would be the best way to make this happen. They were creating a Workplace Learning Network. Needed to be something that was open and allowed all staff to use comfortably and easily. Needed a web based platform, but familiar and easy to use. Looked at apps, twitter, blogs, intranet, flip books and more. The answer was not one perfect tool but an ecosystem of three tools that could work together or individually.

Their set-up consists of three tools – a Word Press blog, which is its formal home and RSS feeds to keep people notified. Initially traffic was good but then dropped off, so they add a RSS feed to their staff intranet and traffic is up again. Next was a hashtag for twitter #coblspd. Several staff sharing professional development already, so this was a natural choice.

At present a handful of staff are using it but it is growing. More staff would use the hashtag if only they could remember it. Last was a Yammer account, for Boroondara Library staff only, for those not comfortable with blogs or twitter.

Did staff survey of what staff were doing with professional development. Discovered staff were already doing a lot, mostly online. So really needed a way to be sharing this knowledge, hence this project. Will resurvey their staff soon to discover how it has changed.

Run by benevolent anarchy – Holley and Hugh doing most of the posting, Many staff have requested assistance with blog posting, moving to online reading and MOOCs. Lots of staff are reading the blog but they want to draw them out to participate more. Some are using twitter, but often forget the hashtag. Yammer not working at all.

Hugh has started sending out a round-up email with twitter highlights on a regular basis, Only been active for a few months, but have learnt a lot.

Advice – survey your staff, found out the baseline, how do they like to get their info. Look for the combination of tools that work for your workplace and workforce. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Always be collecting data (ABCD), can assess delivery methods and topics.

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